Won't you come back home?

So here I am, back in Perth.
After almost 7 months away it was a shock trying to settle back into normality.
I still don't have a job, car or money but I'm getting there!

I surprised my darling girls at their netball game, had many lunch and coffee catch ups, got to attend the first of the 21st's (the gorgeous Kendra Wakefield) and even managed the annual Bremer Bay road trip.
The sun is out, the coffee is good, the sushi is cheap. Yeah - Perth isn't so bad.

Although it did just start snowing in London and I miss everyone there so much!
Jillybean called me last night and passed the phone around to everyone at her place, so good hearing all of your voices! Can't wait to see you all again some day :)

I can't have imagined a better trip, it was fulfilling in a way I didn't know was possible.
Thank you's to Tristan and Guy for not killing me, Gatt, Jared and Carly for letting me squat at your house for so long, Braiden for making sure I did everything on my list and Jill for being an amazing friend.
Love love love!

Anyway, this being the last post I don't think it should be too long, so I'll wrap up.
Basically I had an incredible time in Europe, I recommend it to anyone, but I am very happy to be back home with my girls. Just need to save up now to go again!
Toodles :)

Kendra's 21st

Anh :)

Bremer Bay Steak!

Mexican night with Kendra

Tis the season.

Happy New Year! Yep, it's 2012. The year we all die.

Oh well, it's been a good run.

Christmas in Kent with the Stanley clan was unbelievable.

I was lucky enough to have Ali extend his trip so he could be here for Christmas and Guy came down as well :)

We woke up at 6:30am (thanks Max!) opened presents, got ready and headed round to Sean's parents house where a champagne breakfast awaited us.

We let that digest, spent a couple of hours at the pub and prepared for meal number two.

I cannot even go into how incredible that meal was. Turkey, goose, all kinds of honey glazed or goose fat covered vegetables, red wine and such full stomachs!

I think everyone had a post food nap and then collapsed on the couch watching christmas specials.

Boxing day was equally as epic. Leftovers galore, games on the kinect and Transformers 3.

Ahhhh I love the family over here! Still missed the ones at home though, I hope you all had a lovely day :)

I made my way back up to London a few days before New Years.

Whitey, Kira, Monique and Guy's friend Jenn flew in during that time so it's been lovely having even more perth company.

New Years Eve we had a huge group of people. All the perth kids, everyone from Stepney (minus Jilly who was still in Austria), Braiden and a couple of Jared and Carly's friends.
We had a few drinks and then took some more down to the river to see the fireworks.
As we learnt later on, we were in the completely wrong spot to watch them but we had fun anyway.

2011 has been unexpectedly incredible. I always knew I would love my time in Europe, but this is so much more than I ever could have expected. Plus I got to finish it off with some truly new and old, btu equally amazing, friends.

Walking in a winter wonderland

Last weekend I was in Copenhagen. Ahhh I just love how that sounds.
On friday afternoon I met Jilly at London City Airport and we boarded our flight to darling Denmark.
Post landing we had a couple of issues with money and metro tickets but soon enough we were sitting on the metro, beer in hand - hells yeah Danish drinking laws!

Tristan met us outside the metro, we literally dropped our stuff, had a couple of shots of the good ole Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum and headed out to Culture Box.
The rest of the night, I'm ashamed to say (sorry Mum!) is a bit of a blur.
Free beer for the first hour, a million messages between Trist and I along the lines of:
"Where are you?" "I'm at culture, you?" "At culture, where are you?"

Stopping off at a random bar where Tristan dropped a whole tray of shots and then tried to get away with not paying for them, having a Pizza Time stop on the way home that Jill has no recollection of, Tristan and Jill turning into destructive maniacs and me passing out in the hallway.
I'm pretty sure we had fun though.. Jill's head might say otherwise.

The next day was a little bit of a struggle, but we still managed to walk around the city quite a bit.
I did my mother proud by walking through the amazing Library - modern, black and sleek on the outside, but traditional and gorgeous on the inside, encyclopedia's galore!
We had a surreal visit to Christiania, the suburb in the middle of Copenhagen where there are only three laws, no hard drugs, no running and no photos. Pot is sold freely and houses are made out of just about anything.
The boys cooked us mussels for dinner (AMAZING) and we had a few cocktails later on at night.

Sunday was absolutely freezing, but that didn't stop us from having a crazy good lunch and a magical time at Tivoli. Rollercoasters, 5-G Force rides, mulled wine, reindeer and christmas lights everywhere!
That brought us to a 4am wake up, flight back home and me collecting Guy and heading down to Kent for Christmas.

Which is tomorrow by the way, so I hope you all have an amazing day! I'm sorry I can't be there with you all, but I'm sending all my love and Christmas spirit!

P.S. again, to my unbelievable friends who sent me THE best birthday present, I love you girls so much!

Once upon a December

Weeeeeee birthdays!
I turned the big 21 last friday, and had a magical weekend to follow.



Thursday night I headed to Stepney Green to Gatt and Jills house for a pre-celebration.
Gatt, Jill, Jared, Carly, Mark, Guy, Braiden, Rum. Fun fun times!
Jill called Anna in Melbourne and they all sang happy birthday to me at midnight. Without sounding to braggy - I got an amazing Tiffany's necklace from Mum, Mimco treats from Jilly, a lovely old book from Braiden that I can't wait to read, Jamie Oliver's cookbook and the promise of a Harrods high Tea from Guy.
It was a perfect night.

The next day I did Braiden a favour by hanging out at his place while his internet was installed (because he headed to Paris early) I got to lounge around watching movies with coffee and a croissant.
Afterwards, I met Dad and Pop at borough markets for some tasty treats before getting ready for Paris!

I met Jilly at St Pancras with champagne for the train ride. We met Bray at our apartment, dumped our stuff and walked to the boy's apartment where Ali, Guy and Gareth were waiting with beer, cheese, bread, prosciutto, olives and champagne . After a night of King's cup, a horrible cake and orange juice pulp everywhere we walked back to our place.

Saturday was an absolutely magical day. We had an amazing breakfast at 1pm (best omelette ever!) and spent the rest of the day wandering through stores, the christmas markets, down the Champs Elysees towards the Eifell Tower - which we managed to catch at 6pm when it starts twinkling.
That night we took the Metro to Bastille in the hunt for somewhere to drink and dance.
After a couple of fails we stumbled on a little bar with an underground dancefloor, which unfortunately closed not too long after we got there.
A fricking mission of a bus ride (where Naomi got hit on and then spat on) we crawled into bed.

Yesterday we trecked up to Montemarte for more treats and gorgeous views, then napped for a little too long before going out for a proper french dinner.
We grabbed some macaroons on the way home before heading to bed early - 5:45am start for Jillian and I this morning heading back to London.

It really was the most amazing birthday, and even though I wish a few others were here to celebrate with me, I love that I can say I was in Paris for my 21st.
Thankyou so much Alistair, Jill, Guy, Braiden, Naomi and Gareth for the whole weekend!

Our house, in the middle of our street

Okay, so technically not my house - but it will be for the next two weeks!

Tis correct, I have quit the crazy hostel and am moving out tomorrow.
After two months of night shifts - hectic sleeping patterns, random people in beds they aren't supposed to be in, calling the police because a crazy italian man refuses to leave and cleaning up after one too many party - I am out of here!

Gatt, Jill, Jared and Carly (funnily enough they were all originally Andrew's friends) signed a lease on a place in Stepney Green and have kindly let me stay short term.
So, for the time being I'm on a massive job hunt, which is a little stressful but I also have some amazing trips coming up - Paris for my birthday, a day trip to Bruges with Jill and a weekend visit to Copenhagen to visit Tristan.

And as a spur of the moment trip, my Dad is bringing my Pop over for a couple of weeks. They land on the 29th of November and I couldn't be more excited to see them!

But for now, I have to say goodbye to the Astor Hyde Park.
I have had some absolutely hilarious times here and met some really incredible people!
Jill, Anna, Liv, Antwon, Colin, Mark, Naomi, Crispy, Danny, Braiden, Brian, Jizz, Scott, Sean, Pontus, Oscar, Daniel, Luna, gahhhhh there's too many!
Toodles Astor, and everyone living here, love love love to you all.

Our first night at Astor

B@1

Anna and Liv's last night :(

Church with Yemeny

"Working"

Halloween with Cwispy!

Horror movie, right there on my TV

Ahhhh Halloween. I'm finally in a city that embraces it.
About a week ago the staff were chucked into pairs and told to host an event every few days.
Scott and I managed to score the Halloween party - held the Friday before last.

We bought tons of decorations, carved pumpkins and put on 3 all you can drink punches.
...And the night was a bigger hit than we could have expected.
The kitchen was buzzing with guests and staff, most in costume, some just covered in fake blood.
As you can imagine, it was a rather messy night - but so much fun!

Since then we've had a couple of quieter days and nights hanging out with the staff and our new swedish friends. Braiden's back from Brissy so we're slowly adding to the crew here.
We all took a trip to Oxford Street to brave Topshop and Primark, and came back succesful :)
But that wasn't the most exciting part. Everywhere I go now I'm starting to see Christmas decorations!
We got kicked off our bus early and had to walk past Harrods. Walking past soon turned into a half an hour stop inside, where we saw crocodile shoes for £8,200. The area we're in really is how the other half live, someone find me a rich husband stat!

Jill, Gatt, Jared and Carly managed to score a house to rent, so it's exciting times all round.
I'm still on the job hunt, but lucky to have this place for now - at least I have somewhere to sleep!

Guy is off in Estonia (I think?) and Ali is skating his way through France - lucky boys!

I've become attached to the fish we have at reception, Laurence Fishbourne. Gatt and I cleaned out his tank, and he was moved to a better spot where he is much happier, playing with the rocks in his tank.

I'll try to do more exciting things soon, I think my posts are going downhilllllll.
But ta ta for now, missing you all!

And it goes.. on and on and on

Wahhh sorry guys!
I've been stagant for so long now I forgot that I still need to update this!

So since I last left you I have moved from night cleaning to night reception at the Astor.
This means 4-5 nights a week I do an 8pm to 8am shift on reception. Most of the time its easy and even a little boring, but sometimes when people are put in the wrong room or you have someone sleeping in a bed who's not actually staying at the hostel it's a little stressful.
And then there are the nights when everyone goes out without you and you see them come back niiiiice and drunk. Like Gatt tonight - hard to be mad at that puppy dog face though.

Other than working, and therefore sleeping until 2pm, still looking for an office job and the occasional drinking night I have just been hanging out with the kids here.
Saying hi to new faces that started work at the hostel, welcoming back Gareth (who is a night receptionist too) and Guy, and saying goodbye to Anna, Danny and Liv :(

I had Andrew here for a week or so, but he's back home now and loving it - say hi if you see him!

I also had a visit from my favourite boy in the world - Ali B. He stayed at the hostel for a week, which was unfortunately the week I did 5 night shifts in a row so I didn't get to spend as much time with him as I would have liked, but it was still amazing to have him here. He is now off galavanting around Spain on his way to France - lucky bugger.

I've also been in booking mode this week, having bought train tickets to Paris for my birthday and flights to Copenhagen with Jill to visit Trist. Exciting things coming up soon! (Sorry I've been a bit boring lately, haven't even taken any photo's lately, so these I stole from Jill and Bec)

Guy, Jill and I

Hannah Montana, Owivia, Anna Banana and Jillybean

Towards the end of a night out in Camden..